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How to be more connected: 10 simple ways to get in touch with yourself, your community, and your world.

To yourself:

1. Complete a self-awareness questionnaire or personality quiz. As straightforward as this may seem, it can reveal tremendous insights about what makes you tick that you may not be aware of or just need to be reminded of. Check out Sean Covey’s (author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens”) The Great Discovery self-assessment or the Briggs-Meyers typography test.2. Discover your roots. Can’t find anything to talk to your parents about? Why not ask them about your history, your grandparents or ancestors, how they came to live where they now live, how they chose your name, or interesting family connections in other parts of the world. You might find they have more stories to tell than you might expect!3. Dust off old dreams. Make your goals a reality with this simple but powerful tool that helps you identify key goals in various areas of your life and tangible ways to work towards them.

To others:

1. Buy someone a cuppa. Take the time today to stop, unplug, and ask someone how their day went – face-to-face. Often, the thought of making an effort to connect can be more tiring than actually just doing it. So just do it!2. Get out of your seat. Instead of sending an e-mail to that colleague or chat message to a housemate in another room, pass them the message in person. You’ll burn a few extra calories and give your tired eyes a break too!3. Use social media to find people you can add value to. Facebook and Twitter don’t have to make us all self-absorbed narcissists. Once a day, scroll through your feed and try to find one person whom you can help out with a project or who could do with some cheering up. It could be as easy as filling in an online survey or sending a simple “Have a great day!” message.

To Mother Earth:

1. Visit the market. Use this weekend to check out your local wet market and find out what raw food really looks like before it ends up on your plate. It’ll probably make you think more carefully about what you put into your body.2. Cook your own food. While this might not be practical to do daily, a home-cooked meal every once in a while (using ingredients from scratch, of course!) slows down an essential daily ritual we often take for granted and rush through.3. Volunteer. With the number of volunteer groups growing daily, it’s not difficult to find a cause that you’re interested in and lend a helping hand to. For starters, check out Epic Army, Paws Mission, and Eco Warriors Malaysia – groups run not by any organizations but every day Malaysians like you and me.4. Escape to nature. Make getting away from the daily grind a regular habit, whether it’s yearly island getaways or weekly walks in the park. So often, we take our natural resources for granted, but just spending some time enjoying them can be immensely rejuvenating!